Solubilization of Single-walled Carbon Nanotubes with Single- stranded DNA Generated from Asymmetric PCR

Zhiqiang Liang,Genxi Li,Lihua Wang,Ruojun Lao,Jing Wang,Yongbiao Liu,Qing Huang,Chunhai Fan,Shiping Song

doi:10.3390/i8070705

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) can be effectively dispersed and functionalized bywrapping with long single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) synthesized by asymmetric PCR. ThessDNA-CNTs attached on surface of glass carbon electrode made it possible forelectrochemical analysis and sensing, which was demonstrated by reduction of H2O2 onhemoglobin/ssDNA-CNTs modified electrodes. This research showed the potentialapplication of DNA-functionalised CNTs in construction of future electrochemicalbiosensors.

Highlights

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have intrigued great research interest due to their excellent thermal [1], electrical [2] and mechanical [3] properties
We demonstrated that the DNA/singlewalled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) complex could facilitate the electron transfer reaction of hemoglobin (Hb) at the electrode surface, showing this new material’s great potential in construction of novel electrochemical biosensors [15]
The concentration of reverse primer AS2395 solutions in the experiment was fixed to 10 μM, while the forward primer S525’s concentration ranged from 0.1 to 10 μM, in order to investigate the optimal ratio of primers that could produce most amounts of single-stranded DNA (ssDNA)

Summary

Introduction

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have intrigued great research interest due to their excellent thermal [1], electrical [2] and mechanical [3] properties. In order to overcome these barricades, Brittany et al proposed a PCR-based approach, which produced a large amount of genomic DNA by using polymerase-based DNA amplification. They showed that long genomic DNA, in its single-stranded form, could interact with SWCNTs and serve as an effective dispersion reagent. The normal PCR protocol generates double-stranded (ds-) rather than singled-stranded (ss-) DNA They employed a complicated approach that involved thiolated primers and gold nanoparticle-based separation [12]. Li and coworker developed a novel strategy that avoided using gold nanoparticles They employed an isothermal amplification, rolling circle amplification(RCA), rather than PCR, to amplify DNA [13,14]. We demonstrated that the DNA/SWCNT complex could facilitate the electron transfer reaction of hemoglobin (Hb) at the electrode surface, showing this new material’s great potential in construction of novel electrochemical biosensors [15]

Amplification of DNA Templates Using Asymmetric PCR

Solubilization of DNA-SWCNTs

Electrochemical investigation of DNA-SWCNTs